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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 8
April 2009
RI to adopt fluke sector pilot program
PROVIDENCE, RI - Rhode Island is about to establish a Summer Flounder Sector Allocation Pilot Program.
Late in January, Michael Sullivan, director of the state’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM), announced his decision to set aside a 4-to-3 vote by the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council in December to postpone the pilot program for one year and, instead, to immediately more ahead with the program.
Sullivan acknowledged the controversy inherent in reserving a portion of the state’s limited commercial fluke quota for a small group of fishermen.
However, he said extensive review of state law, the sector pilot proposal, and DEM’s ongoing struggle to effectively manage quota-based fisheries led him to conclude that it was time to test an alternative approach.
“The complexity and short-sighted nature of the current system make it extremely difficult for fishermen to harvest in a way that maximizes profits, leave port only when it is safe to do so, and avoid the awful practices of discarding at sea tons of dead fish,” Sullivan said in his Jan. 25 decision document.
“DEM must demonstrate the foresight and courage to engage promising new strategies,” he said.
Test run
In mid-March, DEM Fish & Wildlife (F&W) Deputy Chief Mark Gibson said only one group – the Rhode Island Fluke Conservation Cooperative – had come forward to participate in the pilot program.
The cooperative, which includes Chris Brown, president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association and designer of the original sector pilot proposal, is made up of approximately eight fishermen.
Sullivan emphasized that the purpose of the pilot program is to “test the viability of a rights-based catch-share approach to management.”
The very small number of fishermen involved should limit the impact on fishermen who are not sector members, Gibson said. And, at approximately 1.6 million pounds, Rhode Island’s share of the coastwide summer flounder is about 200,000 pounds higher in 2009 than in 2008, he added.
The pilot program will run through 2009 and then be evaluated to determine if it should end, continue, or if additional sectors should be considered.
Sector members will have to comply with minimum size and gear requirements but, because they will be operating under a hard quota, will be exempt from trip limits.
“We hope this will end the waste of discards,” Gibson said.
Program elements
In his decision document, Sullivan laid out very specific elements of the pilot program.
The sector’s share of the quota will be based on documented landings by sector members during the five-year period 2004-2008. Summer flounder landings by sector boats between Jan. 1, 2009 and when the sector program starts – probably in April – will be deducted from the sector’s 2009 quota share, Gibson said.
F&W will closely track landings of sector members through the web-based Standard Atlantic Fisheries Information System (SAFIS) that includes electronic dealer reports and electronic trip reports.
Sector members must agree to have their summer flounder landings posted on a DEM web site on a per-vessel, weekly basis through 2009.
Sector boats must retain and land all legal-sized fluke harvested, account for all landings and discards, call in every time they leave the dock whether they intend to target summer flounder or not, and carry observers when requested to do so. The sector will bear observer-related costs.
Due to concerns from program opponents that sector members will increase and redirect their efforts inshore during the summer months, “targeted activities” by sector vessels will be prohibited within one mile of the southern Rhode Island coastline between June 1 and Sept. 1, and landings will be capped at 7,500 pounds per sector vessel between May 1 and Oct. 31.
Finally, in anticipation of possible expansion of the sector program in the future, Sullivan said he intends to establish a prospective control date for the summer flounder fishery of Dec. 31, 2009.
The entire decision document is available on the F&W web site at <www.dem.ri.gov/topics/mftopics.htm>.
Lorelei Stevens
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